The Best End to the Worst Day
by Ellie603
Summary: After Chandler and Monica get engaged, the two share a moment alone in their apartment as Chandler tells Monica what made him decide to propose and Monica tells Chandler about what happened after she left Richard's apartment. A missing moment from "TOW the Proposal"


_A/N: This is my third and final missing moment from the proposal (it would probably be helpful to read "Ready" and "Perfect" if you haven't already, because I mention a few details from those stories in this one, and they all kind of go together). This one kind of sums up everything, but I just really wanted Monica to be able to find out about the Morgan Chase Museum thing and Chandler to know what Monica was thinking after she left Richard's, so that's what this is for. Enjoy! (Also - t__hanks for reading all the stuff I've been writing, and thank you so much everyone who has reviewed and favorited. You guys are awesome.)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own _Friends_, but some dialogue is taken from "TOW the Proposal."_

* * *

"Oh no, wait! No, this is wrong!" Phoebe said, concerned, stepping back from the group hug that had formed moments before when Chandler and Monica had announced to their friends that they were engaged. "Ross isn't here!"

The rest of the group separated slightly as well, and Chandler could hear a sad "ohh" from Monica beside him.

There was a beat as they all looked at each other, hesitant, until Rachel broke the silence. "Oh, hell, he's done this three times! He knows what it's about!"

The quintet each assented to this statement loudly, throwing out their arms and reforming the hug.

Chandler pressed a kiss into Monica's hair beside him. He couldn't believe it. Just a few hours before, he had come into the apartment and found himself confronted with a frantic Joey who told him that Richard had asked Monica to marry him. But now here he was. He had beaten Richard, that big tree of a guy, and now he, Chandler, was engaged to the most beautiful woman he had ever known, his best friend, his everything.

Sure, Richard had told him to go get Monica, but what if Monica had left and gone to her parents? Or, worse, what if she had decided to go back to Richard instead of him? Would Richard have told her to go find Chandler? Of course not. Richard may have been a good guy, but he definitely wasn't that good.

The group broke apart, and Chandler pulled Monica back to him, his arms around her waist, as he leaned down to kiss her temple. She turned around to face him instantly.

"I love you so much, Chandler," she said softly, smiling at him.

"I love you, too." Chandler leaned down and kissed her, barely registering the "aww"s from Phoebe and Rachel and the loud "Yeah baby!" from Joey.

They broke apart, and Monica turned back around to face her friends. Chandler knew he had a big, stupid grin on his face, but he honestly couldn't care less.

Chandler saw tears start to stream down Joey's face.

"Aw, man! I'm just so happy for you guys!" Joey cried, rubbing his eyes. "Does anybody have a tissue?"

Chandler and Monica laughed, as Monica passed him the box.

"I might need a couple of those too, Joe," Chandler said, realizing that his nose was still running pretty badly.

After taking several tissues for himself, Joey handed Chandler the box. As Chandler grabbed one and blew his nose, he saw Monica covertly take a couple and started dabbing at her eyes. Rachel motioned to Chandler for the box, too, and he passed it to her so she and Phoebe could take some.

"We're gonna have to buy some more tissues, honey," Monica said with a choked up laugh.

"I think so," Chandler replied, walking to the trash can to throw his used ones away. He knew that even ecstatically happy engaged Monica wouldn't tolerate used tissues strewn about the apartment.

After getting rid of the tissues, Chandler made his way back to Monica, resting one of his arms behind her as she leaned into him.

"So, you guys all helped set this up?" he asked his friends, gesturing around him at the candles with his free hand.

Phoebe, Rachel, and Joey all nodded, huge smiles on their faces.

"And very convincing acting from you, Joe, I must say. I completely believed she was gone." He lightly squeezed Monica's waist.

She turned to face him, smiling. "It was all my idea. You_ did_ want it to be a surprise."

Chandler locked eyes with her, beaming. "It was the _best_ surprise."

Chandler suddenly wished that the rest of his friends weren't there. He was so happy to share this wonderful thing with them, but, at that moment, he really just wanted to be with Monica.

Monica glanced sideways at the friends sharing the kitchen with them, and then gave Chandler a look that clearly meant that she felt the same way about the presence of Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe.

Rachel was the first one to catch on to Chandler and Monica's desire to be alone. "The three of us should probably go find Ross, right guys?" She looked pointedly at Phoebe and Joey.

"Why would all of us need to go?" Joey asked, confused.

"I just think Chandler and Monica would really like it if we _all_ went to get Ross." Rachel stared from Chandler and Monica to the two friends beside her and then to the door.

"Oh!" Phoebe said, finally catching on. "Yeah, come on Joey, let's go find Ross!" She grabbed Joey's hand and started dragging him out of the apartment.

"I still don't understand why Rachel can't just go herself!" Chandler heard Joey whine from the hallway.

Rachel turned back to the newly engaged couple, and Monica and Chandler grinned at at her, relieved.

"Thank you," Monica said gratefully.

Rachel smiled. "No problem. I'll try to keep everyone out for at least fifteen minutes. Joey's going to want to come back, though."

Chandler laughed quietly. "That's fine, Rachel. Thanks."

Their friend stared at Chandler and Monica for a second, her hands clasped together and her eyes tearing up. "I just can't believe you're engaged!"

"Yeah, we are. I know," Monica said, slightly impatiently, clearly wanting to be alone with Chandler.

"Sorry, sorry! Leaving!" Rachel hurriedly exited the apartment and shut the door behind her.

Chandler turned to Monica, a smile growing on his face. "So. Fiancée," he said, pronouncing the word deliberately.

"Fiancée," Monica repeated, leaning in and kissing him, her hands wrapping around his neck.

The two broke apart, but Chandler left his hands resting at Monica's hips, as she left hers behind his head.

"I can't believe we're engaged!" Monica said excitedly, almost dancing.

"I know!" Chandler replied, just as ecstatically. "Engaged! Betrothed!" He pronounced the o in betrothed like the one in otter.

"Betr-O-thed," Monica corrected. "Long O."

"Right." Chandler laughed.

Monica looked at him, thoughtfully, moving her hands from his neck down to interlock with his.

"What is it, fiancée?" he asked, saying the fiancée very deliberately to make Monica smile.

She grinned hugely at him. "Well, I was wondering something. Those guys all said that you'd been planning this for weeks. When did you decide that you wanted to propose?"

Chandler's large smile was replaced with a smaller one and his eyes grew misty as he looked away from Monica.

"Do you remember the phone call from Hilde at the Morgan Chase Museum?" He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

Monica's mouth fell open. "You decided_ then_?" she almost yelled. "And there I was, worried to death that I had freaked you out so much that you were going to break up with me or something, and you were lying the whole time!"

Chandler squeezed her hands. "If it makes you feel better, I wasn't lying the _whole_ time. I _was_ super freaked out, at first. Remember when I ran out of the apartment? That wasn't acting, that was me _actually_ being super freaked out. But then I took a walk and ended up by this jewelry store, and I was staring at these rings, and all I could think about was how happy you'd be if I gave you one of them and how much I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I knew I was supposed to be all afraid of commitment and everything, but when I was standing there, I realized that getting married wasn't scary at all if it was to you."

Monica stared at him, shaking her head slightly. "And I didn't think I could love you any more than I already did." She pulled him toward her and kissed him again.

"So you aren't mad at me?" Chandler asked, leaning away from Monica.

She shook her head. "I can't be mad at you. Being mad at you would be pretty tough, seeing as we're kind of stuck together for the rest of our lives now, ya know?" She smiled at him teasingly, displaying the ring on her finger.

Chandler mock-frowned in response. "Hey, if it's a problem, I can take that ring back." He held out his hand for Monica to put the ring into.

Monica shook her head back and forth rapidly, clutching the glittering diamond to her as she smiled down at it. "No way, this is way too pretty for me to give back."

"It is nice, isn't it?" Chandler agreed, mentally congratulating himself on his ring selection.

"It's perfect, Chandler," Monica said, vehemently. "How did you pick it out?"

Chandler chuckled at the memory. "Pheebs and I went to probably a billion stores, and we looked through so many brochures, but then I saw that ring, and I thought it might be the one. Then I made the guy at the jewelry store ask me to marry him, and that's when I knew."

Monica laughed in response. "You are so cute! You really asked him to ask you to marry him?"

"I did," Chandler replied, nodding seriously, though not covering up the laughter in his eyes.

"So Phoebe was the first person who knew?" Monica asked, playing with the ring on her finger.

"Yeah." Chandler grimaced. "She walked in on me in the bathroom when I was looking at ring brochures."

"Oh," Monica said, clearly trying not to start giggling.

Chandler rolled his eyes. "You can laugh if you want to," he said, exasperatedly.

"Thanks," Monica replied, laughing so hard her shoulders started shaking.

Chandler's expression grew serious. "You know, I really wanted to propose the other night at the restaurant. It was your favorite place, and I had gotten your favorite champagne, and I was literally about thirty seconds from asking you to marry me when stupid Richard walked in." Chandler adopted a mocking tone when he mentioned the name of Monica's ex-boyfriend.

"About Richard," Monica began, but Chandler stopped her.

"It's okay. I talked to him, and he said you had left to go think things over, but I showed him the ring and told him how serious I was about you. I said that he had missed his chance to have you, and that we were meant to be together, and then he told me to go get you and to never let you go." Chandler reached his hand up to rest against Monica's cheek. "And I'm never going to."

Monica leaned her face into his hand. "That was nice of him to say, but you know, it was never really a contest between you two."

Chandler stared at her, confused.

"I wanted marriage and kids, and that's the only reason I went to Richard's tonight," Monica said, clearly trying to reassure Chandler that she didn't care about her cigar-smoking ex-boyfriend anymore. "But when I was coming back to the apartment, I realized that if all that stuff I wanted didn't happen with you, then I didn't want it to happen at all. I guess you could say that Richard missed his chance back then, but you have no idea how glad I am that he did."

Chandler looked down at his fiancée, relief over what could have been spreading across his face. "Oh me too, Monica. Me too." He pulled her close to him and kissed her, trying to express to her just how happy he was that everything was fine.

Monica pulled back from him, a huge smile on her face as she made her way to the stereo and put in a tape.

"Wonderful Tonight" started playing as Monica held out her hand to him. "Dance with me?"

Tears welled up in Chandler's eyes again. "Of course." He walked over to Monica, placing his hands on her back and pressing her close to him, as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

They stood revolving on the spot for the duration of the song, hugging each other closer and kissing as the song ended.

Chandler had never been more content in his life. He felt like he could just stay there with Monica in his arms forever.

"This is the best day of my life," Chandler said to her as the apartment grew quiet. "Well," he amended his statement after thinking for a second, "it's the best end to a day of my life."

Monica leaned her forehead against his, laughing. "Me too."

There was a knock on the door. "Can we come back in yet guys?" Joey's voice came through the door, complaining. "It's been at least 20 minutes!"

Monica laughed as Chandler shook his head.

"Yeah, come on in, Joe," Chandler called, moving his hands down from Monica's back and taking her left hand in his right. As his fingers grazed the ring on her fourth finger, he felt a little jolt go through him. The ring was proof that he and Monica were in this for the long haul, for better or for worse. Of course they would have to wait until the actual wedding for that to be truly official, but for him, at least, it already was.

Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe came back into the apartment, all still clearly very excited.

"You guys didn't find Ross?" Monica said, disappointment evident in her voice.

Rachel shook her head. "He wasn't in his apartment, but we left a note on his door to come over and bring champagne."

"And a Three Musketeers Bar," Joey added.

Chandler looked at him, perturbed.

"I'm hungry!" he exclaimed, as though that was a good enough excuse.

Chandler shook his head at his friend. "Well, we have some champagne here, why don't we start with that?"

Phoebe turned on the lights as Chandler went to get the bottle.

Monica looked around the apartment, her face slightly sad. "The candles are all so pretty, but they are a bit of a fire hazard."

The rest of the gang nodded in agreement, and Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe began to blow all of them out as Joey moved the stands with some of the now unlit candles back into Phoebe's room.

Chandler poured out five glasses of champagne for the friends as they finished with the candles.

He passed them around, and Joey began to speak. "It's been a pretty crazy day, and I know that I for one wasn't sure how it was going to end."

Monica leaned in to Chandler as he looped his free arm around her waist.

"But," Joey continued, "I'm so unbelievably happy that you two were able to get engaged and that you're going to spend the rest of your lives together."

Chandler beamed down at his fiancée.

"To Chandler and Monica!" Joey ended his speech.

"Chandler and Monica!" Rachel and Phoebe echoed, and the five clinked their glasses together.

As they drank their champagne, Chandler noticed that Monica beside him seemed unable to keep still.

"What's the matter, Mon?" he asked, puzzled.

"I'm just so excited!" she said loudly, her tone of voice affirming her statement. "I want to shout it from the rooftops that I'm engaged! Finally engaged!"

"Well why don't you?" Phoebe said seriously. "Go out on the balcony and tell the whole world!"

Monica looked around for a second, a smile growing on her face. "I think I just might do that." She put her glass down on the table and went to grab her jacket. "I'll be back in a minute," she said, giving Chandler a quick kiss.

"Take all the time you need," Chandler replied, grinning.

As Monica's shouts of "I'm engaged!" and "I'm gonna be a bride!" came drifting in from the balcony a few moments later, Chandler couldn't help but smile to himself. She was so happy, and it was all because of him. T_his really has been the best night ever, _he thought to himself. _The best._

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_A/N: Thanks so so much for reading, and please leave a review!_


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